In one example, of a semiconductor light-emitting device has a semiconductor element (hereinafter, simply referred to as light-emitting element), a wavelength conversion unit including a phosphor, a light-emitting element which, for example, emits blue light (such as a Blue LED (Light Emitting Diode)) and phosphor that emits, for example, yellow light that is complementary to the blue light. These components are employed together in order to obtain a white light. Other phosphors emitting other wavelengths (i.e., colors) of light may also be combined in a wavelength conversion unit in this manner to obtain other colors via the combined wavelengths.
When manufacturing this kind of semiconductor light-emitting device, the surface of the wavelength conversion unit may be smoothed by a polishing process and then subjected to a wet etching technique that creates a roughened, irregular surface thereon.
These conventional semiconductor light-emitting devices are typically mounted on a substrate using a robotic device (e.g., a chip mounter) that utilizes vacuum adsorption, which facilitates pick up and transfer of the semiconductor light-emitting device in the mounting process. However at this stage, as the surface of the wavelength conversion unit is roughened by etching, air can undesirably enter the surface via gaps in the irregular surface. When this happens, the robotic device will fail to pick up and/or reliably transfer the semiconductor light-emitting device. The resulting pick up failures cause a yield reduction.